I watched Thor Ragnarok last night. IT IS WONDERFUL AND MADE OF WONDERFUL THINGS AND I NEED TO SEE IT AGAIN. ANOTHER. HOLY SHIT. No, but really, I called franztastisch at a train station with @TricksyLiesmith so we could 'OH MY GOD' at each other before I ran for a train. I am in a DM (private message) threat of British people on Twitter FLIPPING OUR COLLECTIVE LIDS.

The non-spoiler overview: if you like Director Taika Waititi's sense of humour (try Hunt for the Wilderpeople) then you're going to love this. I laughed until I cried, constantly, for the whole film. Right from the start this film is given space to be funny, room for the jokes to breathe, and, when you get home and calm down a little, room for them to have layers. Thor: Ragnarok has a relatively straightforward plot. The cleverness comes in all of the little details, emotions, shout outs to previous Thor films and MCU films, to the comics and the myths, to character development and world building, and the jokes aren't seperate to that. They're funny because you know the history, or because the situation is hilarious, or because of the aciting and the facial expressions, and then you look again and there's more going on underneath. So much more. I'm still digging through them and I need to watch it again - hopefully this weekend. And then there's the themes. Which I can't spoil you for. But, oh my Thor, YES. Visually it's really colourful with some interesting choices, the music just works, everything is quote worthy, and everyone in the cast looks like they enjoyed the hell out of themselves making this film.

PS. I seem to know a lot of people who like Loki? Even though I live in the Assassins corner of the Internet? I blame @TricksyLiesmith. But apparently if you are a Loki and Thor fan this film is for you ;)

So where does this sit with the rest of the MCU? For me Winter Solider is the best in terms of plot. For humour Thor: Dark World and Gaurdians of the Galaxy. Then I just love all the ensemble films, especially for dialogue and banter, and I love Civil War. Thor: Ragnorak is easily the funniest film for me. The plot...Winter Solider still comes out top for me, for how timely and on point it was/is, how well it juggled everything, and the complete shake up of the MCU. Thor: Ragnarok shows how simple can be wonderful though, and shines in it's layers and themes. Beautiful layers and themes. After one viewing? Thor: Ragnarok is definitely the best Thor film and easily one of my favourites in the whole MCU.

Extras: look, we all know by now to stay until the end of a Marvel film, so pin your butt to that seat. There's a mid credits scene and an after credits scene. Oh, and there's some amazing cameos and who knows how many Easter eggs - I'm waiting for YOU so you can tell me what I've missed :D

Secreta Santa 2017 sign ups are open at be_compromised until 9AM GMT SATURDAY 21ST OCTOBER. The community has moved to Dreamwidth but you can sign up using your LJ with OpenID or comment anonymously to sign up including your LJ handle in your comment. There's only 4 people signed up so far, so if you know of anyone who'd be interested in an exchange with Clint and Natasha, as a couple or friends or partners, then please do spread the word.

Also marvel big bang starts posting soon and they have an AO3 collection. Nice, some long Marvel fics comings soon.

Any fic recs from things you've read recently? franztastisch pointed me at Summer Don't Own Me No More by Nonymos with gorgeous art by alby_mangroves, and it is solar!punk and amazing!

Second viewing of Age of Ultron was on Tuesday for thinky thoughts and third viewing was this afternoon for trying to memorize quotes and checking a few things for fic purposes *grins*. So I bring you further, hopefully more coherent, thinking. Be warned: SPOILERS FOR ALL THE THINGS. Also it’s kind of long and detailed, sorry not sorry ;)

Also, I’m going to be making quote icons. Because reasons. So if you have favourite quotes comment with them – I’ve got a bunch, but I’m not convinced they’re entirely accurate and there’s that much in the film that I’m bound to have missed a ton anyway. QUOTE AT ME. You might get icons out of it. (And if my quotes aren’t right in this either, yell!)


( here be lots of words on Age of Ultron )

EDITS:
- also as-complete-as-I-can-remember plot summary in the comments
- also interesting meta on Natasha from thedancingcow on tumblr - critical of how she was written in AOU without being critical of her character

This film, I like it! Another!

Which is to say I’ll be watching it again on Tuesday night before I get detailed, but I’ve put together some first reactions, including my Clint and Natasha views. The non-spoiler reaction is: I enjoyed the hell out of this film :D

( Be warned: massive spoilers behind the cut. Also squee. And lots of Clint and Natasha thoughts )

kaydeefalls has an excellent Natasha post-Winter Soldier vid: We Will Dance. This is the vid I hoped we'd get after the film! (They've also done Steve and Bucky vids. Aww hell, just watch all their vids. You won't regret it.)

David Aja tweeted that Hawkeye #19 will be out on July 30th! And I am going to need this Phil Noto Black Widow cover in my life.

There's a masterlist for the Clint/Natasha Remix Exchange on be_compromised. Just in case anyone on my f-list doesn't already know *grins*. I'm working my way through.

JK Rowling has written a post-epilogue Harry Potter article from the pen of Rita Skeeter. You can read it HERE if, like me, you long ago gave up on Pottermore. It doesn't tell us much we didn't already know.

Doctor Who series 8 scripts have been leaked (no spoilers in article). *sigh* These things give me this reaction: Please don't spoil people. And by 'people' I mean me. And by 'me' I mean I will be angry faced.

Oooh, by the by, I have watched all of Agents of SHIELD and now can no longer be spoiled! Diving into the fics and vids and extras and wonderful, but obviously the fervor has died down now, so if anyone has recs or links to things they loved please do share :)

At least in the UK you can now pre-order the Art of Level 7 Agents of SHIELD variants! For anyone who doesn't know what this is, a group of great artists did art that was expensive but is now on the covers of comics at much more affordable prices. For example on disposable heroes for £3.79 each. Variants available. (You have to search on disposable heroes for each issue.) The only one that I'm not in love with is the pinky maze.

This. Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer by BriTANicKdotcom on YouTube. Warning: meta.

Bear with me a minute people in countries who saw this ages ago, but I just watched this week's episode of SHIELD on the UK timetable and oh. my. heart. I TRUST NO ONE! AND WINTER SOLDIER EVENTS, THEY HAVE HAPPENED. Woah I am invested in this lol.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

I joined @TricksyLiesmith for a double film trip today: Amazing Spider Man 2 followed by a third viewing of Captain America: Winter Solider! We saw the first five minutes of How To Train Your Dragon 2 (twice lol), the new X Men trailer (looking excellent!), and we aquired Spider Man IMAX posters.

Spoiler-free Amazing Spider Man 2 reaction: I really enjoyed it, I continue to love how the Amazing Spider Man films (as opposed to the Toby Macguire ones) portrays the characters as the young people that they are, and if you're watching it do stay for the extra credit scene. (Yes, there is one.)

( AMAZING SPIDER MAN 2 REACTION: CUT FOR HUGE SPOILERS )

The ATTF discussion on be_compromised tonight has forced me into finally trying to put some of my flailing on this film into words. Rambling at people in person doesn't count ;) It also have a bunch of post-film fic recs that look shiny!

So, some thoughts...


( Captain America 2: Winter Soldier SPOILERS; NO Agents of SHIELD spoilers )


Okay, I think I'm out of words for now ;) Any thinky thoughts to add?

It was a geeky comics fayre day today. Breakfast and geeky chatter, comics buying and geeky chatter (comics! and I got the first two Walking Dead graphic novels dirt cheap), pizza and geeky chatter, books and geeky chatter, and sleepy geeky chatter on the way home. And tomorrow I'm going to see the new Thor film as a sister day :D

Because I have friends who're huge Loki and Sif fans (on top of the fact that the rest of our geeky group love all things Marvel) I have seen the new Thor film on the Wednesday it came out and last Saturday and I'm seeing it again tomorrow. Avengers is still my favourite, but Thor: The Dark World is up there with Iron Man 3. Lots of fun, very quotable, and other things that I love that I will mention in a more spoilerish (and cut!) post another time. But yes, recommended!

If you haven't seen the Skottie Young variant for the new Black Widow comic coming in January it is here and I like it muchly (and I am going to have to icon it):

( is it time yet??? )

Marvel is teaming up with Netflix for Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, followed by Defenders. Alas, this will require a good internet connection. But still, shiny! I also hear that a future Agents of SHIELD episode coming soon is going to tie-in with Thor: The Dark World. The verdict from our chat today: (SPOILER FOR THOR THE DARK WORLD SO WHITED OUT, HIGHLIHT TO READ)*we really, really, really want Thor's hammer to go flying past! At least once. Pretty please!*

I've finished reading Dust by Hugh Howey and Allegiant by Veronica Roth this week. Dust is a thrilling, fast-paced finish to a brilliant trilogy. Things I saw coming, things I didn't see coming, and I nearly missed my bus stop because I found it so difficult to put down! Allegiant is a solid ending to the trilogy, some good messages, and Roth makes some brave writing choices. It doesn't quite reach the best of the best category for me, but definitely very good.

The John Lewis Christmas advert (thank you anuna_81 for pointing me at it) this is year is made of win - made me awww and laugh:

( i'm beginning to get the Christmas feeling )

Lots of stuff to do, but time for a family tea. And then maybe some comics reading!

& sarahtales has once again worked her commentary magic, this time on Pacific Rim HERE. It captures all of the things I liked about that film, cheerfully pokes fun at the bits that I found problematic, and is full of hilarity.

& For the love of all things, why do people leave during the credits for Marvel films? When will they learn?! Which is to say that the after credits scene is probably the best bit of the new Wolverine film. It caused much geeking out amongst us. Mind you, the bit at the very end of the credits that thanks the hotel, as in that hotel, you know the one, is an actual hotel possibly caused as much noise. Also fun is tallying how many excuses there are for Hugh Jackman to lose his shirt. This is not the best film you will see this year. But it's fun.

& Far. Too. Many. Comics. But yay, new Saga!!!

& Far too many books, and fics, and tv things, argh.

& I'm reserving judgement on the New Doctor until we've actually seen him as the new Doctor. For all the people commenting on his clothes and scarf in the promo shots: remember when everyone said Matt Smith looked too young and was wearing a leather jacket like Nine, and Amy wasn't even wearing a real police uniform, and this was a travesty? Remember when it turned out that Eleven wore tweed and acted older than the previous two Doctors in some ways and Amy was actually a kissagram? Remember that? Moffat, people. Learn.

& I've been working on heroine big bang graphics. I have two wonderful stories to work with! I'm almost done with the graphics for one of them, but I'm contemplating doing a little actual art thing as well for it. The other I need to crack on with. I'm also loving gearing up to do a postcard graphics project with franztastisch, and playing with some graphics for cybermathwitch, and I think there needs to be more Skottie Young icons...

& I might actually get the rough draft of a fic done for marvel_bang, wow. If I make good use of the bank holiday weekend at the end of this week. Writing hat on!

& I'm going to see Neil Gaiman in Ely tomorrow evening. It's not sinking in. I am so very excited, really, Fangirl: Headless Chicken Version. I still have no idea what I'm going to get signed! I've narrowed it down to Endless Nights, Issue 8 of Sandman (The Sound of Her Wings), and the little gold ghastly book. So I'm taking all three with me, because train reading, plus The Ocean At The End Of The Lane (of course - he's going to sign all copies of that, since that is the point of the book tour, and one other thing for people) but I don't think any more time will help me decide, ha. The friend I'm going with is trying to persuade me to take my laptop - we're staying over in a hotel, there may be a night of internets and a Marvel film. Or we might crash from the excitement; that's a distinct possibility. Then again, that's what sugary food stuffs are for *grins*.

Night all x

I went to see Iron Man 3 today! It's hilarious, exciting, twisty, full of fun dialogue and banter, and all round superb. And for the love of all things, stay until the very end of the credits because the extra scene is a gem.

Fun times and hilarity with friends and geeky shopping also happened:

I need to chat about comics sometime (and the friends that I've been corrupting *grins*) because I've been diving into those. We all picked up more today, heh. Also I keep having bizare conversations with strangers in comic book shops. Not that I don't have bizare conversations with strangers anyway, but today one was about death by hamsters with two people who worked there and a bunch of people queuing up to pay.

One of my friends brought a belated birthday gift for me - an 'Barton's School of Archery' t-shirt from Redbubble, an exploding Vincent Van Gogh TARDIS travel pass case, and a key ring with The Key from The Hobbit on it!!!

I used my Waterstones points (finally lol) to get the novel Shift, which is the sequel to Wool by Hugh Howey, because I read Wool all in one sitting on Thursday. It's imaginative, rich in details, has compelling characters, twists where you don't expect it, plays with you expectations, and is un-put-downable. No, really, I couldn't put it down.

And tonight is also new Doctor Who, so I'm gonna go watch that now.

Hello today and the people in it, thank you for existing :D

I HAVE JUST WATCHED THAT CASTLE SEASON FIVE EPISODE WITH THE SCI-FI CONVENTION AND MY FANDOM CUP OF JOY HAS OVERFLOWED.

So many shows have episodes set in conventions, or a tv studio, or a circus, or so on, and however much they try it turns out cheesey. The writers of Castle though, they get it, and I don't just mean fandom (although what Kate says near the end about it, I loved that). (This is a show with spin off novels and graphics novels as written by a character in the show. They get fandom.) I mean they get that the point of these episodes isn't just to laugh at the oddities of these 'other places', it's to laugh with the joy of the people who love being in them. So, so many Firefly references, Avengers references, Joss Whedon references, so many sci-fi shows mentioned and fandom sayings in there, and everywhere. I want to rewatch it just to admire the detail in the costumes chosen and the background details just as much as the things thrown straight at the audience. It's obvious that the writers and makers of this episode had so much fun making it. And that translated to me having incredible amounts of fun watching it.

Dad has watched Firefly, Serenity (I enable offline just as much as online *grins*), and Avengers so he caught quite a few things (I was proud). But I still kept laughing and wanting so much to point things out that wouldn't have meant anything to anyone else in the room, so if anyone would like to squee with me over the wondefulness that was that episode then I'll be over here. Looking for something bigger than a cup for my fandom joy (and more than happy to have to be doing so).

Thanking you for all the lovely birthday wishes! Since it's a weekday I didn't really get up to much, but some family came to visit, which was nice, and there was cake, which was yummy. I was actually far more excited about the fact that a new Iron Man 3 trailer was released today than about being another year older though *grins*. I can't help it, time happens all the time, I'm always getting older, but Iron Man 3 people, PRIORITIES:



We're also finally getting Season 5 of Castle in the UK on March 20th!!! We only recently got the second season of White Collar, which I'd been waiting years for, and then it's just sailed straight into the third season, what?! Elementary and Chicago Fire have just returned after an irritating mid-season break, and Arrow is off for a few weeks but back soon, and Revolution is on the way, which looks interesting. March, hello, we're going to be friends this year.

Last summer myself and a bunch of friends passed around some DVDs and books, because there are some fannish things where we have an overwhelming urge to share. (We're all still working our way through stuff. Shhh, we're slow.) For my part, I'm making sure they're familiar with Firefly, Dollhouse, and Neil Gaiman amongst other wonderful. Anyway, one of my friends lent me the full seven seasons of Buffy. I've never seen them all, and not in order. (My mum thought a series about horrible things like vampires and demons would scare me to death as a kid. She was probably right. But I still told her, "But Mum it's really about feminism!")

So last night I couldn't sleep and decided to make inroads. I have now finally finished Season One and started Season Two! (Shhh, slow remember? And in my defence this was far from the only thing I was leant.)

The point of this post: the ending of Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight leapt onto my list of reasons why I love Joss Whedon. ( spoiler cut in case anyone else hasn't seen it either ) Made of win, Whedon, made of win. And since this was aired ages and ages ago SOMEONE TELL ME THERE IS FANFICTION OF THIS.

I've been having an organisational day again - hello Monday - and I found these quotes that I must have meant to share some time back, related to sometimes in the brain of a fan things are different. I'm going to share them now, because they still amuse me greatly.

From here on tumblr: “Tinker Tailor Solider Spy: aka that awkward moment when Sherlock has to bring Sirius Black out of retirement to help the Dream Lord, the King of England, Aberforth Dumbledore, Lord Blackwood, and the Elephant Man catch a mole because Russia.”

And from here a quote from Steven Moffat when asked when season 3 of Sherlock will happen: “We’re trying to schedule everything around everything. Obviously Sherlock Holmes is off battling Captain Kirk, and Dr Watson is helping Gandalf, and I’m in the TARDIS.”

The second thing I’ve reviewed is my f-list, communities, and feeds, and my fandoms. I’ve stopped following people that haven’t posted in a long time without any reason that I know of or can think of, and communities that are inactive or I no longer spend much time on. I know some of you post sporadically, have busy lives offline, or spend more time on communities than your own journals. (And some of you I just don’t want to stop stalking in case you show up again! I live in hope.) If I’ve stopped following anyone who is actually still around, let me know and I’ll follow you again!

If you’re following me, and if you want to know if it’s a good idea to keep following me *grins*, here’s an idea of what fandoms I see myself being involved in this year and what I hope to get up to in them:

( Where I stand in fandoms at the moment, and what I hope to do in them )

And I think that’s everything! But you might also want to know: a surprise!fandom may appear; I’m always open to book chatter and icon requests; I sometimes drop icons in comments to people, but I fail at gifs; I often have long comment conversations; I have more ideas than I write and love to enable other people who have ideas; there may also be posts about random things that catch my attention, like crazy weather (but I tend to f-lock those).

> Have been laid low by this cold, meh, but starting to get over it My brain has been noodled. How do people write when they're not feeling great? I've seen some of you treat sick days as writing time. Me, I can't make my brain order ideas into words. As it is I ended up sleeping a lot and watching TV - season two of White Collar has finally made it to the UK, yay, and whilst I have problems with Elementary I watched the first few episodes of that and found it fun.

> Back in 2008 I wrote this about the fifth of November and the US election. I think it still stands: governments are not infallible, that voting is a power that we shouldn't take for granted, and that we can use it to change things. Regardless of who you're voting for, I hope you vote today.

> The BBC have released a missing scene Doctor Who P.S. about what happened to Brian and the Ponds after The Angels Take Manhattan. So, serious spoilers, people. And grab a tissue.)

> If you haven't heard the news, Agent Coulson is back in the SHIELD TV show (link to one of many articles). Does that mean that the show is set pre-Avengers? Or are the conspiracy theorists in with a chance of being right? Let the speculation commence! (And if the Agents in this show would like to speculate about Clint and Natasha on their coffee break whilst Coulson smiles enigmatically I WOULD BE OKAY WITH THAT.)

> Creative Support Group - The Beta Edition happening over at be_compromised. A chance to discuss anything and everything about beta reading, as a beta, a writer, or both.

> The War Was in Color by Settiai on YouTube remains the best STEVE FEEEEEELS vid ever. Footage from both Captain America, The Avengers, and The Avengers extra footage/deleted scenes. The editing is superb, the use of black and white fantastic, the matching of the lyrics to the clips amazing, and the story telling wonderful. FEEEEEELS.

I’m supposed to be waiting for Christmas for the Avengers, which works since I’m currently broke and there were rumours that there might be a special version coming out by then in the UK, but those are apparently debunked. That’s a kick in the gut considering that in the UK not only does the DVD of the Avengers come with practically no extras at all, but Joss Whedon’s commentary has been taken off the Blu-ray (even if you pre-ordered it), the Coulson scene has been censored, and there’s still no Shawarma Scene. I’ve been trying to work out what my best option would be.

The Options:
1) the UK DVD. It’s cheap, it has the film on it!
2) the UK Blu-ray. It has most of the extras.
3) import a region free US Blu-ray with everything. (Amazon tells me that the UK Blu-ray is region free, but it says that the US Blu-ray is region specific. True or false?)

For me, I personally don’t own a Blu-ray player, but I could use a family one. Awkward, but do-able. Blu-ray also costs more and importing a Blu-ray even more than that. The thing is that I managed to catch a fair amount of the extras on the internet before they were taken down:
- the gag reel
- “A Visual Journey”
- Loki and Clint extended scene
- Bruce extended scene
- the extended Viaduct Fight
- Steve Rodgers – Man Out of Time
- the Maria Hill, Fury, and World Security Council alternate bits
- Item 47 (if that’s the one with the two folks in the car with ski-masks and alien weaponary?)
I have also seen blurry footage of the post-credits Shawarma scene that they won’t let us have in the UK. Whilst I object to the censorship of the Coulson scene on principal I’m not too fussed if I end up with the censored version. (I’m still peeved on principal that it’s called by the different title of ‘Avengers Assemble’ over here but I can live with it.) According to the table here of what the US gets I’m missing Second Screen, Assembling the Ultimate Team, a music video, and Joss Whedon’s commentary.

Am I missing anything else? Based on what I’ve already managed to see, is there any point in the extra expense of tracking down a Blu-ray with everything on it? Am I missing some really good things, or have I seen the best extras and should just sit back and rewatch the film?

Non-spoiler thoughts: HELLO MOFFAT AND THE DOCTOR WHO CREW, I MISSED YOU! I missed the way you play with my heart and my brain and my expectations. And I missed your wonderful, wonderful dialogue.

HUGE SPOILERS BENEATH THE CUTS:

( Ponds (and in defence of Amy) )

( Daleks (and yes they're scary) )

( Oswin (surprise, surprise!) )

( Questions (...) )